Bernardo Belotto (nennt sich Canaletto) «Foss du Zwinger Dresde”

(Zwingergraben)

This lyrical view of Dresden of about 1758, taken from the greenhouses of the royal Orangery and looking towards

the old city in the distance, is captured in paint by the great Venetian artist Bernardo Bellotto, the immensely

talented nephew of Antonio Canaletto, known outside Italy by his uncle’s name. Bellotto provides a new angle on

some of the city’s most famous landmarks. Here, in one of his most striking compositions, its fine detail well

preserved, he offers an unexpected view of the Zwinger, a masterpiece of festive Baroque architecture,

commissioned as a royal arena for ceremonies and spectacles. With his views of Dresden, Bellotto established

himself at court and became known as the topographical painter par excellence.

This work relates to the large format view that Bellotto was commissioned to paint by Augustus III (1696–1763), son

and successor of Frederick Augustus I, Elector of Saxony, who in 1697 converted to Catholicism in order to become

Augustus II, King of Poland (1670–1733). As in the latter view, still preserved in Dresden at the Gemäldegalerie Alte

Meister (fig. 1),1Bellotto depicts the moat that runs along the Zwinger. This version differs in its tighter focus,

numerous details and date. The artistic vision of both monarchs –father and son –is reflected in this composition:

that of Augustus II, responsible for a series of ambitious royal and civic buildings, including the Zwinger depicted

here; and Augustus III, who during his reign attracted an international circle of artists to his court, notable among

them Bellotto.....

Bellotto, who would later work at the courts of Vienna, Munich and Warsaw, was commissioned by Frederick

Augustus II, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony as Augustus III, to paint views of Dresden, the nearby town of

Pirna, and Königstein to the south-east (fig. 3). His annual salary of 1,750 thalers was the highest ever paid by the

King to any painter. In 1748, the year after his arrival at the Saxon court, Augustus bestowed on Bellotto the title of

court painter and gave him a gold snuff box studded with diamonds, containing 300 gold louis. He was to remain in

Dresden for eleven years.

Between 1747 and 1753 Bellotto painted for the Royal Gallery fourteen dazzling large-format views, and numerous

other views, that show Dresden to its best advantage...

Provenance:

Private collection of the Duke of Saxe-Anhalt until 1925

With Galerie Bachstitz, Berlin, 1928

With Arthur Tooth, London

Max Emden, Hamburg, Germany

With Karl Haberstock, Berlin, acquired 30 June 1938 (inventory no. 1938/125)

Reichskanzlei, Berlin, acquired June 1938 (Führer inventory 115)

In store, Alt Ausee, Austria (number 1447)

Munich Central Collecting Point (number 1648), 15 January 1946

Treuhandverwaltung für Kulturgut, Munich

Office of the Federal President, Bonn, on loan since 1961

Restituted to the heirs of Max Emden, 2019

Ce qui est trange, c’est qu’une autre pice matresse de la collection Emden, le «Foss

du Zwinger Dresde» de Canaletto, est pass entre les mains de Hitler durant la guerre

pour finir accroche, de nos jours, dans une salle manger de la Villa Hammerschmidt,

l’ancienne rsidence officielle du prsident allemand.

Auf Empfehlung der Beratenden Kommission bei der Koordinierungsstelle des Bundes,

der Länder und der Kommunalen Spitzenverbände wurde das Gemälde aus der

früheren Sammlung von Max Emden im März 2019 an die legitimierten

Rechtsnachfolger restituiert (siehe auch: Liste von Restitutionsfällen). Am 28. Juli 2020

wurde es im Auftrag der Erben über das Londoner Auktionshaus Sotheby’sfür 5,437

Millionen Pfund (knapp 6 Millionen Euro) versteigert

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Zwingergraben_in_Dresden

Un tableau chez Hitler

Et qu’en est-il du reste de la collection de Max Emden? Elle aurait disparu durant la

guerre alors que les les de Brissago avaient te places sous administration civile

locale. Ce qui est trange, c’est qu’une autre pice matresse de la collection Emden, le

«Fossdu Zwinger Dresde» de Canaletto, est pass entre les mains de Hitler durant la

guerre pour finir accroche, de nos jours, dans une salle manger de la Villa

Hammerschmidt, l’ancienne rsidence officielle du prsident allemand.

https://www.illustre.ch/magazine/aux-iles-brissago-secrets-dune-saga

2005: Deutscher Bundespräsident soll Bellotto-Gemälde zurückgeben

https://www.derstandard.at/story/2242091/hitlers-wunschbild-haengt-bei-koehler

https://kunstverwaltung.bund.de/SharedDocs/Provenienzen/DE/1000_1999/1648.ht

file:///Users/yvon/Downloads/19-03-26-recommendation-emden-germany.pdf.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20230414025727/https://www.beratende-

kommission.de/en/recommendations

https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2020/evening-sale-london/bernardo-

bellotto-dresden-a-view-of-the-moat-of

Note on Provenance

First recorded in the private collection of the Duke of Saxe-Anhalt, Bellotto’s Dresden, View of the Moat of the Zwinger found its way onto the

open market in Berlin, where it was acquired sometime between 1928 and 1930 by Jewish businessman Max Emden (1874–1940). One of the

founders of Berlin’s famous KaDeWe department store, Emden owned stores around Germany and as far afield as Italy, Hungary and

Scandinavia.

In 1927, Emden acquired the two Brissago Islands in the Swiss sector of Lake Maggiore and in 1929 began redeveloping them as his permanent

residence, preserving the garden on the larger island made by the previous owner, the Baroness St Leger, and building a house in classical style

at its centre. As unconventional in spirit as the Baroness, he continued with her tradition of exotic parties and, as a committed naturist and nudist,

encouraged his like-minded guests to water-ski and dance naked in the garden. His motto ‘Auch leben ist eine Kunst’ (‘Even living is an art’)

greeted visitors as they disembarked.

In 1933, Emden left Hamburg and withdrew to his island property, and the following year, the municipality of Porto Ronco granted him citizenship

rights, which meant that he was also a Swiss citizen from that date onwards. For Emden, the apparent blessing of Swiss citizenship led to his

economic downfall; while he could still have managed his arrangements and made provisions relatively unhindered until 1935, as a Swiss citizen

he was already prevented from doing so prior to 1935 solely on account of the Third Reich’s restrictive foreign exchange policy. In 1934 and 1935

his businesses, properties and financial assets in Germany, including most of his prestigious art collection, were seized by the Nazis. By 1937,

he was almost insolvent and began to sell his art collection held on Brissago Island.

In June 1938, art dealer Anna Caspari arranged the sale of two of Emden’s Bellotto paintings – Dresden, A View of the Moat of the Zwinger (the

present lot) and Vienna, a View of the Karlskirche (lot 165 in the Old Masters Day sale, 20–29 July 2020, L20034) –to Karl Haberstock, a

prominent dealer at the time, who was a buyer of artworks for Adolf Hitler and his planned ‘Führermuseum’ in Linz. A victim of Nazi persecution,

Emden sold the Bellottos below market value, and according to the findings of last year’s restitution case, there is no evidence he received the

proceeds of the sale. The descendants of Max Emden were collectively of the opinion that the forced sales carried out under National Socialist

rule and the expropriation of the businessman’s assets located in Germany ultimately led to his financial ruin. That the sale of the paintings had

not been undertaken voluntarily but entirely as a result of worsening economic hardship, was confirmed not least by the fact that Emden had

been forced to sell other valuable items from his household at the same time. In 1940, Emden died, and the island and house were acquired by

three local cantons, Ticino buying a half-share.

After the war Dresden, A View of the Moat of the Zwinger was seized by Allied troops and entered the German federal government collection in

the 1960s. The painting was housed in the residence of successive German presidents for many decades thereafter, but President Horst Köhler

returned it to the government in 2005 after learning its history. The picture then went on permanent loan to the Militär Historisches Museum in

Dresden. In 2019 Dresden, View of the Moat of the Zwinger by Bellotto was restituted and returned by the German government to the heirs of

Max Emden.

https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2020/evening-sale-london/bernardo-bellotto-dresden-a-view-of-the-moat-of

Emden’s heirs fought for 15 years to reclaim them. Juan

Carlos Emden, Max Emden’s grandson who lives in Chile,

has said the family at first “faced closed doors and deaf

ears.”

But in April last year, the German government’s advisory

panel on Nazi-looted art recommended the return of both

paintings to Emden’s heirs, arguing that “the targeted

destruction of economic livelihood by the Third Reich as a

means of implementing Nazi race policies (and a

preliminary step towards the so-called ‘final solution’) was

also applied in Max Emden’s case.”

The view of the Karlskirche, previously on loan from the

government to the Kunstpalast museum in Düsseldorf, will

be offered at the Sotheby’s Old Masters Day Sale Online

(20-29 July) with an estimate of £150,000-£200,000.

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2020/07/08/sothebys-

to-auction-pound4m-restituted-bellotto-painting-that-

jewish-retail-magnate-was-forced-to-sell-to-hitler